ABOVE: Mahealani Cypher and Kehaunani Aba atop the OMEGA building, with H-3 behind them. Construction of the controversial interstate in the 1990s catalyzed the effort to establish the OHPC.
For many, traveling long and far away is part of the ideal vacation—it's about getting away. Not so for Kehaunani Abad. Her father, Fred Keakaokalani Cachola, made recreational time all about understanding Oahu, where Abad's family has lived for generations. "Growing up, he took me to a lot of places he was trying to protect," she says, recalling her father's work as a cultural advocate. "It was just a part of what we would do on a Saturday or on vacations."
Their journeys around Oahu and Hawaii Island took them to heiau (temples), fishing shrines, holua (sled) slides, burial platforms, trails, petroglyphs and house sites. Abad's father emphasized the importance of understanding archaeology and architecture, culture and history, particularly before contact with Western explorers. "I saw his frustration trying to protect places that shouldn't have been that hard to protect," she says.
At the time, there wasn't a local government office with which Abad's father could work to preserve the important places of Oahu. "We were the only county in the state of Hawaii that didn't have a historic preservation commission," recalls Honolulu City Council member Esther Kiaaina. "In fact, we were the only city of comparable size in the whole country."
But that changed at the beginning of 2023, when the island's historic preservation commission was created after more than three decades of efforts to make it happen. When the nine members of the newly formed body were announced last April, just two months after Cachola passed away, his daughter was among them. "My highest hope for us as a commission," Abad says, "is that we'll be able to impact the historic preservation process so that communities, the government and private entities involved in development projects all feel like it's a better process today than it has been in the past."
Meeting for just the first time in July, the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission (OHPC) works with communities and grassroots organizations to identify and preserve places that matter to the people of the island-places that tell the story of the land. Which places those are "has to come from the community," says Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the nonprofit Historic Hawaii Foundation. "The community has to have a voice. The Oahu Historic Preservation Commission can be that voice to all the decision-makers."
The new OHPC, chaired by Abad, is considering the site-among many others-for special designation.
Historic preservation is a complex, multilayered discipline, Faulkner says, and it includes various perspectives and specialties: history and architecture, archaeology and ethnography, permitting and development, real estate and technical trades, anthropology and museums, historic sites and tourism. The OHPC is made up of individuals from this spectrum of backgrounds, and most of them check more than one box—including Abad, who has worked as an archaeologist, educator and community advocate. It is a multifaceted group that includes two archaeologists, two architects, an architectural historian and four cultural historians, all with deep roots in Hawaii. "You need to have a way to bring all of these stakeholders to the table," says Faulkner. "The commission is not going to be all things to all people, but it can be a place where all those different perspectives can come together and provide input in a timely way."
Getting the commission established has been decades in the making. It's been fifty-eight years since Congress passed the 1966 National Preservation Act, which laid out a national plan for historic preservation across the country—a plan rooted in a strong relationship among federal, state and local stakeholders working together. "All preservation is local, eventually," says Faulkner. "So you need to have a local preservation program in cities and counties and townships all across the country, and they need to work closely with the state and agencies at the federal level."
Hawaii established a State Historic Preservation Office in 1976, and four of the state's five counties set up preservation commissions at the local level over the next two decades. Honolulu County, which includes all of Oahu, didn't. Real estate interests have always played an outsize role on the island, which is home to nearly 70 percent of the state's population and is the first landing spot for most visitors. Many feared a historic preservation commission would stymie development. "That ability to engage in this national framework was being denied to the people of Oahu," Faulkner says. "And we were concerned about that."
Things came close to fruition in the 1990s. At the time, advocates were raising concerns about the redirection of stream flows and underground water caused by the construction of Interstate H-3, which cuts through Haiku Valley. Out of those conversations, a 1993 ordinance established a preservation commission. But the mayor at the time, Frank Fasi, vetoed it.
Undaunted, the advocates pushed the council to override the veto. "We were able to show them that there were places in their own districts that were important and worth saving, and the council accepted that as a community value," recalls Mahealani Cypher, a historian and cultural advocate who was involved in those first efforts and who, like Abad, is among the commission's first appointees.
Ulupo Heiau in Kailua is one example of a little-known gem that will be part of the commission's comprehensive inventory of historic sites across Oahu. "There are so many state parks with archaeological sites," says Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the nonprofit Historic Hawaii Foundation. "Ulupo Heiau might be one of my favorites."
But even after the City Council voted to override Fasi's veto, he did not enact the ordinance before leaving office. His successor, Jeremy Harris, blocked implementation of the commission, and every mayor after him followed suit. "Most mayors didn't want this commission to succeed because they claimed it could mean more delays and paperwork that would block development," says Cypher. "Some mayors depend on development to get reelected." But, she points out, the commission's work can actually help developers save time and money. "It's so important for landowners and developers to know early in their planning whether there are historic sites that might be affected," she says. "It can avoid costly delays as well as the loss of treasured places of antiquity."
The ordinance establishing the preservation commission sat on the books, completely inactive, until August 2020 when, as part of a regular review, Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting put forward a recommendation that the moribund commission be repealed. It was Cypher's written testimony in favor of implementing the commission that caught council member Kiaaina's attention: "I was already inclined to question the repeal, but Mahealani is someone I've known for decades, I trust her judgment-and she's one of my constituents," says Kiaaina. "So right there I protested in the hearing."
It was the beginning of 2021, and Kiaaina bought time by assembling a working group to update the language of the 1993 ordinance. "I gave them guidance," she says, "because we wanted to make sure the responsibility of the commission would not be duplicative of other agencies and commissions, and we didn't want the commission to be so onerous on the development community that it defeats the whole purpose of what we're trying to do."
Kiaaina enlisted Faulkner, Abad and Cypher to look at the nearly thirty-year-old ordinance and update it for the twenty-first century. "When we first introduced the bill in the '90s, we thought it was adequate as it was," says Cypher. "But what we learned is that the council at the time amended it significantly, which made the language in the ordinance really confusing. We worked on improving the language so it was clearer and less confusing."
Kiaaina knew that to convince Rick Blangiardi to be the first mayor to support the creation of the commission, she needed to present a ready-to-go bill-one that clearly stated the commission's purpose as a collaborative and not adversarial body. "Esther persuaded the mayor that if we work properly, as a commission should, we can help with a lot of projects where permitting takes a long time," says Cypher. "We may be able to help reduce some of the wait time. We had to prove that we wouldn't be there just to block projects but rather preserve things that are important."
Once introduced, public support for the bill was strong. "I don't know if any of us expected that level of support," Kiaaina says. "Testimony from the community was overwhelming." The OHPC was activated at the beginning of 2023, and with just a few meetings sofar, the possibilities of what it might accomplish are already coming intofocus.
Faulkner notes that the OHPC is empowered to nominate specific locations to be registered with the state and federal government as historic sites, and she's advocating for the commission to go a step further by creating an inventory of historic places on the island.
While the Office of Hawaiian Affairs maintains a database for cultural sites, and there is a list of properties included on the National Registry of Historic Places, Hawaii does not have a reliable, comprehensive database of all preserved sites, everything from Hawaiian cultural sites to the Mid-century Modern architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff and CW Dickey. "You have to have an inventory of historic places to know what they are, where they are, why they are important and how they would be affected by different proposals," says Faulkner. "And there are a lot of properties that could be listed, that meet the criteria for being listed or that maybe should be evaluated to see if they meet the criteria—but nobody has looked. An inventory like this has been a longtime goal for a lot of people."
Creating such an inventory benefits not only Oahu residents but also the millions of annual visitors to the island. "It's about the opportunity to go beyond a commercial luau at a hotel," says Faulkner, "and get to know the authentic places that tell the stories of Hawaiians, from early voyaging to pre-Western contact, through the monarchy period to the present day. This is a living culture—so where are the sites that are part of those stories? Which ones are appropriate for just that community, which are appropriate for a larger community and which ones are appropriate for visitation? Those things all need to be identified and balanced."
The Dillingham Transportation Building in downtown Honolulu was designed by architect Lincoln Rogers, part of an Italian Renaissance Revival in the late 1920s. Built in 1929, it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it's one example of a modern structure the OHPC hopes to better protect.
For Abad, one of the commission's greatest assets is its ability to catch preservation issues that slip through the cracks. While city building and permitting departments are overwhelmed with a backlog of applications, the commission has the luxury of distance from that daily grind. And this distance, Abad says, allows them to make a difference. "We can take a step back and be circumspect about the whole," she says, "and offer some recommendations."
One of the commission's first recommendations came after a review of the GPS data fields used by government agencies for issuing building permits. "Commissioners Thomas Dye and Richard Davis brought it to our attention that the state commission and the city permitting office weren't using the same data fields," Abad says. "We want to make sure they are both seeing the same information and there is reliability on both sides."
But the possibilities go beyond data fixes. There are abandoned historic structures, covered in vines and graffiti, such as the Boyd-Irwin-Hedemann Estate near the Waimanaloforest Reserve, where Queen Liliuokalani enjoyed an extended stay before writing "Aloha oe." There are dozens of neglected heiau, or ancient Hawaiian temples, scattered about the island, many in poor or unstable condition; some are just unassuming rock formations tucked away in a state or community park without any signage or protection.
Abad says that developing the island responsibly today is intertwined with understanding and preserving its history. "We have a deep belief," she says, "that the integrity of who we are as a people today has much to do with the richness of our history. Having a tangible connection to that past to remind us and inspire us is a big part of who we are as a people who love this aina [land] and our community. There's a part of that motivating all of us on the commission."
While Kiaaina says she's excited about the practical effects the commission will have, she's also eager to see how it might provide encouragement to those who are preserving Hawaii's history in other ways. "The commission can uplift voices and issues that people care about deeply, like the preservation of Hawaiian language and other important issues," she says. "When people have been in the trenches for a long time, they lose faith in government. So, for me this wasn't just about the issue but also the faith communities can have in government to do the right thing."
Cypher points out that in some cases the commission can help the people of Oahu realize undiscovered treasures—and the effects of such discoveries can run deep: "There are places where neighbors didn't even know there was a very important historic place there. And when we tell them, they get all excited about it. It uplifts the spirit of a community."
